Lucy, Bennett, Mills Show More Agreement on Issues Than Not

Tuesday night's forum in Danvers presented the three candidates for the Board of Selectmen with a wide range of topics to address -- everything from tax policy to medical marijuana treatment centers, housing homeless families in motels, transparency in government and managing long-term debt.

The May 7 Town Election pits incumbent selectmen Keith Lucy and Dan Bennett against challenger Dave Mills in a three-way race for two seats.

Two topics that sparked some of the most impassioned remarks of the night were about housing homeless families in town and lingering traffic issues from a major state highway project on Elliott Street and High Street where those main thoroughfares intersect with Route 128.

Housing the homeless

On using motels as emergency shelters for the homeless, all agreed more needs to be done by the state, which manages the housing program.

"I see it as an enormous burden on the town of Danvers. I see it as a very critical and pathetic statement of what this society has done to provide an opportunity for people to have homes and get along without the welfare state," said Mills.

He acknowledged he is unfamiliar with where exactly funding of the program stands at this time, but said Danvers officials and taxpayers are rightly concerned at the financial burden the program places on the town and should continue efforts to find a solution.

"We are being asked to do far more than our share... It's a terrible, terrible cost burden to the taxpayers here," said Mills.

The town has ended up with about 10 percent of the families in the program from across the state, said Bennett, and Danvers taxpayers are footing the bill -- $700,000 over the past four years -- to transport those students from Danvers back to their original schools, as far away as Lawrence and Waltham in some cases.

"It's an undue burden on our school system... It's ridiculous, these poor kids should not be sitting on a bus for their school day for that amount of time," Bennett said, noting the town has done a great deal to provide services and support to the families.

He said the state auditor has formally called the program an unfunded mandate and that the town should be reimbursed on transportation costs, but to this date, Danvers "hasn't seen a penny."

"The state just stuffs [them] into one room. It's no way to raise a child," he said.

State Rep. Ted Speliotis has actively pursued the issue on the town's behalf, leading to the recent auditor's report. State officials have in fact now pledged to phase out the controversial housing program by June 2014 and create more affordable housing options and boost efforts to prevent homelessness.

In the interim, however, Danvers and several other communities are still left to foot the bill.

"It's a travesty," Lucy said, adding he agrees with Selectman Bill Clark's description of the program as akin to "warehousing these families in motel rooms."

Lucy said that as a president and registrar of two youth leagues in town, he's made sure the leagues and town community services council make concerted efforts to "draw these kids out and engage get them engaged." He said that involves participation in town sports and summer activities.

Lucy said funds were promised by the state, but then cut in half in emergency budget cuts and still nothing has come through.

"If we want to see lower [taxes]... we need to maximize the money other people are promising to us," he said.

Traffic woes

As for the two highly trafficked interchanges with Route 128, again, despite a lot of frustration, there may not be much the town itself can do.

"When it first was unveiled, it was a train wreck," Lucy said. "I still have a hard time figuring out which lane to be in."

He said he's at least figured that one out most of the time now, but thinks there still needs to be some improvement in terms of signage on the ground.

The real problem, however, is lack of effective outreach by the state to the public early on in the planning stages, he said. And that needs to be more than just a small legal notice in a newspaper.

Lucy said the town needs to be more proactive in reaching out to residents when these sort of state projects come up.

Mills described them as "two horror shows" that are absolutely "horrifying" to deal with. "Every time I drove through it, I said, 'Who is in charge here?'"

He said he did not have a solution to offer at this point, but later added (after Bennett made the point) that he is grateful for the improved safety in the deceleration and acceleration lanes onto the highway.

Bennett said that safety on Route 128 was the prime concern and that has been greatly improved, but "the Danvers roads themselves, that's a different story."

He said poor design and traffic signalization by state engineers seems to have led to the current queueing problems now as motorists try to take a left onto either Elliott or High streets and consequently back up and block the path of motorists trying to take a left on the highway on-ramps.

Bennett said he was unsure, however, what the town could do about it at this point.

Taking part in Tuesday's live show on Danvers Community Access Television, which was a Q&A forum rather than a debate, were editors from your local news outlets: Danvers Patch, the Danvers Herald and the Salem News.

Did you watch the Q&A? Let us know what you thought in the comment section below. And check back for further coverage from Tuesday night's forum.